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A Rotherham MP claims people are not reporting child abuse for fear of being labelled racist.

Sarah Champion said there is a need to acknowledge that the ‘majority of perpetrators have been British-Pakistani’ in the English towns and cities where grooming gangs have been found to have targeted girls.

Largely Asian sex gangs have been uncovered and prosecuted across the country, including offenders in Rotherham, where 1,400 girls are said to have been abused between 1997 and 2013 while authorities turned a blind eye.

Amber Rudd has warned that “political and cultural sensitivities” must not be allowed to deter work on uncovering child sex abuse.

The home secretary spoke following the convictions of 17 men and one woman two days ago for the sexual abuse of underage girls in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Her intervention came as the attorney-general faced calls to review the sentences of several members of the Tyneside gang after it emerged that the apparently racially-aggravated nature of their crimes was not reflected in their punishment.